Hussain Malik Altaf, Dawson Christopher O
Department of Wine, Food and Molecular Biosciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand.
Foods. 2013 Dec 12;2(4):585-589. doi: 10.3390/foods2040585.
A globalized food trade, extensive production and complex supply chains are contributing toward an increased number of microbiological food safety outbreaks. Moreover, the volume of international food trade has increased to become very large. All of these factors are putting pressure on the food companies to meet global demand in order to be competitive. This scenario could force manufacturers to be lenient toward food safety control intentionally, or unintentionally, and result in a major foodborne outbreak that causes health problems and economic loss. The estimated cost of food safety incidents for the economy of the United States is around $7 billion per year which comes from notifying consumers, removing food from shelves, and paying damages as a result of lawsuits. Most other countries similarly have economic losses. Much of these losses represent lost markets, loss of consumer demand, litigation and company closures. Concrete steps are needed to improve safety of foods produced for local or overseas markets to avoid unexpected food scandals and economic losses.
全球化的食品贸易、广泛的生产和复杂的供应链导致微生物食品安全事件的数量不断增加。此外，国际食品贸易量已增长到非常庞大的规模。所有这些因素都给食品公司带来压力，要求它们满足全球需求以保持竞争力。这种情况可能迫使制造商有意或无意地对食品安全控制放松要求，从而导致重大的食源性疾病暴发，引发健康问题和经济损失。据估计，美国经济每年因食品安全事件产生的成本约为70亿美元，这些成本来自通知消费者、下架食品以及因诉讼支付损害赔偿金。其他大多数国家也同样遭受经济损失。这些损失大多表现为市场流失、消费者需求丧失、诉讼以及公司倒闭。需要采取具体措施来提高为本地或海外市场生产的食品的安全性，以避免意外的食品丑闻和经济损失。
